Compartment No. 6
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: November 19, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
80
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayFeb 17, 2022
Kuosmanen has given us another affair to remember, this time about love as something for which you’d not just go to the ends of the Earth, but to the beginning of time. Read full review
100
Original-CinLiam LaceyFeb 10, 2022
Adapted from a novel by Finnish writer Rosa Liksom and set in brutal cold of a northern Russian winter or in a cramped jostling train car, Compartment No. 6 somehow lands in an unexpected warm place between the grim and the serio-comic. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleNov 18, 2021
In stripping genre ornamentation away to get to what brings people together in stark, lonely, and in this case, mighty cold circumstances, Finnish filmmaker Juho Kuosmanen (“The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki”) has achieved something genuinely unlikely, and quietly renewing about what a love story can be. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJan 28, 2022
There’s nothing particularly surprising about the story, but Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen finds a way to make an old tale feel new. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla DargisJan 25, 2022
Part of what makes Compartment No. 6 engrossing and effective is how Kuosmanen plays with tone. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsFeb 1, 2022
It’s tough-minded and tender-hearted in equal measure. It’s also slyly insightful on the theme of chance elements in solo travel, and unexpected, emotionally tricky connections along the way. Read full review
88
The Associated PressJake CoyleJan 26, 2022
Adapting Rosa Liksom’s novel of the same name, Kuosmanen has moved the book from the ’80s to the ’90s and lost some of the story’s political backdrop in favor of a more out-of-time love story. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyJan 25, 2022
An observation that when you’re running away, it doesn’t matter where you’re running to as much as it matters where you’re running from. “Compartment No. 6” has an always energetic sense of place even when it’s keeping to the confined space of its title room. Combined with the committed acting, it makes for a worthwhile journey. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Aparita BhandariSep 11, 2021
Russia’s stark landscape makes for breathtaking and sometimes comical scenes. This is a trip well worth taking. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Mark KermodeApr 12, 2022
Beautifully believable performances from Haarla and Borisov add emotional weight, rivalling the nuanced naturalistic charm of Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy in Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy. Read full review
80
EmpireJohn NugentApr 8, 2022
This unconventional love story — which plays like a Richard Linklater film set in the Arctic circle — is a total charmer, and will have you reaching for an Interrail ticket immediately afterwards. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesTara BradyApr 8, 2022
Haarla and Borisov demonstrate impeccable timing and expertly tiny movements as they warm up to one another. It’s something like love but without either sex or romance. And it’s a joy to behold. Read full review
80
CineVueChristopher MachellApr 8, 2022
Setting his film largely on the dingy confines of an overnight train, Kuosmanen kindles a tender love story between two lost souls. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeyApr 7, 2022
It’s the rapport between the actors – or the anti-rapport, to start with – that makes this such a winning diversion. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMar 8, 2022
Compartment No. 6 takes people and places you might wish to escape on first blush and makes you glad by the end that you’ve spent time with them. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJan 27, 2022
For those with a hunger for surprising, affecting films, I say seek this one out by all means. Mr. Kuosmanen’s direction of actors is impeccable; he and his stars deserve one another fully. Read full review
80
Time OutDave CalhounJul 13, 2021
The performances, the writing and the direction all conspire to make it feel fresh and specific, and as bleak as the settings may be, it has a delicious black comic streak and shares the buzz of personal re-awakening without ever feeling obvious or cheap. It turns out to be a beacon of warmth amid a frozen wasteland. Read full review
80
VarietyJessica KiangJul 12, 2021
The humdrum and heartswelling Compartment No. 6 evokes a powerful nostalgia for a type of loneliness we don’t really have any more, and for the type of love that was its cure. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawJul 12, 2021
Despite the bone-chilling cold of its location in Murmansk in Russia’s remote north-west, there’s a wonderful human warmth and humour in this offbeat romantic story of strangers on a train. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJul 12, 2021
As dour as it often seems with its reek of stale booze and cigarette smoke, there’s joy here for patient audiences willing to find it, and to forego the easy consolations of a more conventional outcome. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisMar 17, 2022
For a while, you wonder whether the movie will become a thriller about the perils of solo travel, particularly for single females. But the intimacy of director Kuosmanen’s Dogme 95-inspired camerawork hints that something more is happening here. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyMar 10, 2022
The movie has an unhurried rhythm, not slow, but unpressured. It’s a visual equivalent of the clacking of the railroad tracks. Read full review
75
Paste MagazineKatarina DocalovichFeb 1, 2022
Compartment No. 6 may strike some as a boozier Before Sunrise, but it’s more like the drier, Eastern European answer to Before Sunrise’s romantic Western sensibilities. Read full review
75
Slant MagazinePat BrownAug 1, 2021
Juho Kuosmanen’s film interestingly thrives off of an ironic juxtaposition of character and environment. Read full review
75
The PlaylistElena LazicJul 12, 2021
Compartment No.6 is at its best when it unveils the gap between its characters’ true identities and the parts that they choose to play. Read full review
74
TheWrapBen CrollJul 12, 2021
It requires, and ultimately rewards, patience. Read full review
70
Screen DailyJonathan RomneyJul 12, 2021
Compartment No. 6 is something of a minimalist shaggy dog story, ending on a bittersweet low-key note. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 30, 2022
Grasping for meaning in its unsettling, occasionally comic and always cryptic “relationship” can be an interesting thought exercise. Read full review
60
Little White LiesMark AschApr 12, 2022
Seidi Haarla gives a winning, intelligent performance as a naturally very clever person made to feel small and helpless in a strange land. But Yuriy Borisov pops from the first moments you see him: his hunched-shoulders posture; his abrupt, agitated movements and boxer’s duck-and-weave walk; the animalistic way he tears into food, impatiently and avidly. Read full review
60
Film ThreatAndy HowellSep 20, 2021
Director Juho Kuosmanen excels in telling a story that seems entirely believable and realistic, never forced or predictable. The actors are equally talented. Read full review
58
The Film StageAlistair RyderJul 14, 2021
Kuosmanen has crafted a drama within a clearly defined moment in recent history, only to refuse to be tied to it. This approach to period storytelling proves far more intriguing than the romantic drama within this setting. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleBob StraussMar 9, 2022
That its premise is a fundamentally corny one we’ve seen a million times before is a separate matter, but filmmaker Kuosmanen (“The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki”) and his two lead actors camouflage that well in naturalistic behavior and psychological depth. Read full review
50
The New YorkerRichard BrodyJan 25, 2022
The movie sinks, fast and deep, under the weight of dramatic shortcuts, overemphatic details, undercooked possibilities, unconsidered implications. Read full review
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